In Paul Thomas Anderson's 2021 coming-of-age joint Licorice Pizza, Cooper Hoffman gave a breakout performance as a fresh-faced kid who gets in over his head with an older woman. And now, as Variety's reporting confirms, Cooper Hoffman is set to play a fresh-faced kid who gets in over his head with an older woman once again — albeit with a little less of a '70s nostalgic glow and a little more of a dangerous twist. The actor, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman, has been cast as Olivia Wilde's sexual muse in erotically charged thriller I Want Your Sex, the latest movie from Mysterious Skin auteur Gregg Araki.
Written by Araki alongside his Now Apocalypse co-writer Karley Sciortino, I Want Your Sex — in case the title doesn't quite spell it out clearly enough — looks set to be a typically raw and unflinching feature from the White Bird In A Blizzard filmmaker. Described as an exploration of "desire, domination and fantasy," the movie's provocative synopsis reads as follows: "When fresh-faced Elliot (Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder."
Hoffman's casting in this one comes hot on the heels of news that the promising young actor — soon to be seen in Jason Reitman's SNL movie Saturday Night — is set to lead upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Long__Walk, on which he'll work with his father's Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence in a sorta-similar 'play-or-die' scenario. As for Wilde, this will be the multi-disciplinarian's first major project since directing and starring in Don't Worry Darling, a movie with its own fair share of sex, obsession, power, betrayal, and murder. And with production on Araki's latest set to get underway this October in Los Angeles, we expect I Want Your Sex will be, er, coming real soon.